A Federal High Court in Lagos granted N50 million bail each to two students, Timothy Oluwabukola from Moshood Abiola Polytechnic and Anthony Odemerho from Resign Regal Academy, on Monday.
The students are accused of hacking into MTN Nigeria Communications’ computers and stealing airtime and data valued at N1.9 billion.
Justice Akintayo Aluko approved their bail following two separate applications submitted by the defendants. In addition to the bail amount, each defendant must present two sureties: one must be a civil servant in either the federal or Lagos State government at grade level 14 or higher, while the other must own property within the court’s jurisdiction and provide proof of ownership and a sworn affidavit of means.
The civil servant surety must also provide a reference letter from their workplace and evidence of their most recent promotion. Both defendants are required to submit two recent passport photographs to the court registrar. The prosecution is tasked with verifying all submitted documents and residential addresses of the sureties.
Until these bail conditions are met, the defendants will remain in the Correctional Centre.
Oluwabukola and Odemerho were arraigned on July 30, 2024, by the Police Special Fraud Unit on four charges, including conspiracy, unauthorized access to the company’s Application Programming Interface, and unlawful conversion.
Police prosecution counsel, Justine Enang, informed the court that the defendants, along with others who remain at large, are alleged to have committed the offenses.
